My Rex rebuild

[mikey-t]

slowly making progress

wherever possible i have replaced perishables with brand new but some of these things are getting a lot harder to find,

new rose joints, bushes, track rod end, dust boots etc

[boosted]

Worth it end mate...mines on the road...done about 100miles in it today lush!

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[mikey-t]

im gonna end up missing the summer at this rate though, which is annoying

[mikey-t]

in another mass of wiring hell right now,
although the haltech has its own loom and power wiring etc etc there is still plenty of ancillaries to take into account.

now initially i was going to strip the whole car and rewire the lot but that seemed too much like hard work and wire is (censored)ing expensive also i am getting impatient so i (censored)ed that off,

right now i am at the stage where i want to do the bare minimum, so that means sorting the following



--- i have a battery relocation but i am still not happy with the way the engine bay wiring is run, i want to consolidate the horseshoe loom, the power loom and fuse box / diagnostic and fan control relays into one easy to maintain box. this is the hardest thing to get my head round and really need help on this bit

--- in the cab i have all the standard wiring plus 3 relays fro ecu control, a fuse panel for ecu, my electric water pump control, more fan wiring etc i want to mount all this on a plate and maybe swap out the relays for solid state or switchable breakers

--- in the boot is a right cluster (censored) but like the rest i want to make a plate up and mount all the controls on it, i will need fuel system control, water injection, main battery fusing and split system etc etc.


any tech gurus out there willing to give me a hand or a heads up on just how to do it, i hate splicing and cutting into existing lines and just tee'ing off that just seems a bit of a shortcut too me but i dont have the confidence in myself to go balls deep in car spaghetti

[mikey-t]

Also need some yoda like advice on fuelling system etc will try and go into more detail later when I have pictures

[mikey-t]

so another day hard at it in the unit,
move a bit around to tidy up, look at something you need to sort on the car, research on the internet how a master craftsman has done the job and made it look like pure porn,
cry a little at your lack of talent but order the bits to attempt a hash up of the job anyway,

cry a lot more when the stuff comes and you realise you have wasted your money ,,,,repeat


anyone elses project go like this at all???


so im still having suspension woes, still cant get that circlip out and the more research we do the more it confuses us, its a clip in there and a load of metalwork but according to powerflex a bush goes in there? looks to me like a pillow ball socket with a bit of a rubber spacer either side,

anyone else have a rear upper arm off that i can take a look at or have knowledge of what the hell is going on with it?


the wiring is still happening. i wanted to consolidate all the fuse boxes etc but its just a massive ballache even with the haltech loom which in a way makes it more difficult as it uses parts of the old system.





anyway i had a good look over the wiring diagrams today and noticed 3 lines from battery +ive with notes to install a 75amp breaker if you want, me being safety concious i thought yes i will do that





see it clearly states that, RED,RED AND GREEN and RED AND WHITE

come from battery positive and can be breakered

except it lies there is only 2 wires from battery for the ecu ecu main power in red and fuel pump main power in red

and even when you chase it back to the haltech fuse block where said wires are meant to go there is no red and green and the other two are not where theyre meant to be

what is this voo doo

see no red and green




i later found a later spec diagram that was a little clearer about where the wires actually went and discovered that they had obviously run out of red and green and red and white as all 3 wires were present and located on 3 separate terminals but all using the same 3mm red wire colour.

genius

anywho one of 3 breakers right here, and to those who dont know, these are (censored)ing expensive when you can buy relays and ssr's for a few quid.



times it by 10 and your close

so after giving up again and looking at images like this which is what i want to do to my wiring





and this from custom clusters




i decided it was steak time, for the second day running

mmmmm mmmmm steak is only steak if it is heavier than 1kg




anyway back to the disastrous fuelling where the wire just fell out.... that could have been fun












still undecided what to do here,

at the moment the preffered method is to go with a relatively standard in tank pump to lift to a external swirl pot somewhere under the car. hopefully with full braid lines again. i can then run that to the front maybe with a -10 to future proof the system,

the braid in engine bay is -6 but will be upgraded at some point in the future but whilst im under the car and all that.....
will this cause stress on the pump or regulator at all with the bottle neck or will it just regulate as normal and return as normal?

pulled my lockwire set out today to go through some of the criticals, rather tie off as i go around so i know for sure everything is secured, torqued and double checked





also dug out a bit of flat that i had around, was going to build a battery box but ran out of talent and then i was going to buy one but cannot pay £50 + for a box, its against everything i believe in, so i was going to bend some flat and strap it down until i realised the positions werent quite right for bolting down with any stability etc and so i started looking at boxes again whilst grumbling

[boosted]

The 2 outer bushes on the top rear wishbones that attach to shock and hub are pillow ball bushes....if theres no play in them leave as is...if theres play then the circlip needs to come out and then pressed out or drawn out with sockets on threaded bar...i just recently done mine piccys in my build thread.


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[mikey-t]

sooo new bleed welded into the radiator



and while trawling ebay i came across 4 of these, awesome for a little vented panel section etc i thought, turned up and they are actually a carbon fibre / other composite mix panel

may have one either side of a box im making for the electrics to keep cool








not bad for a tenner, got the front corner suspension all mounted up and dropped back on the deck, it dropped that low i couldnt get the low level jack out





i was just about to start looking at the fuel system and it started hailing, and i mean HEAVY it came down solid for ten minutes and left about 3" of shit all over the ground and of course my weak ans feeble roof, 20 minutes after it stopped it was still raining inside

never mind i dont have stereos and laptops and k series engines all over the shop

http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v479/cruisemidlands/mazda%20rx7/CD5E1323-C98F-4E28-A765-1CF5414DF047_zpstlzvuxaj.mp4


http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v479/cruisemidlands/mazda%20rx7/5A9EE0C6-094A-4BEA-9094-5651C6E155B4_zpswn354zcr.mp4

[mikey-t]

engine bay has been pretty much stripped yet again as we are trying to fix all the issues that the tuners from down south provided and we just keep finding more issues.

today my bit of gold was finding out that the coils ground was loose on a stud just rattling away no nut nothing just the pressure of a vac line holding it somewere near in place,

so yeah everything is being double checked,

yay fun times

[mikey-t]

To cure some electrical woes and some unsafe wiring I have started by cleaning up my grounds, back to bare metal, good connection etc,

Going to keep them bare for now until I can test the effectiveness of the grounds with a multimeter, then I'm thinking of a quick paint touch up to the bolts and then a clear over the top or some electrical paste that don't turn shitty,

Any recommendations?









Whilst I was at it I installed my inline fuse in the boot, and started wiring up a busbar to act as a positive take off to save populating the + terminal with a million wires and bending connectors etc




From that I should be able to pull a positive for the water meth, fuel pump and other ancillaries with ease, I could also start situating in line breakers and fuse panels but that's for further on in hr wbuild


I have been running two different batteries with very little success, neither seems to have the guts to start from cold with ease or hold a charge on a stubborn start up,

Obviously the grounds were not helping but still expect more, any recommendations on this front?
I don't want to run gel or Li ion as the car will be stood for long periods and have high loads etc plus I don't fancy rebuilding the alternator to suit,








And this one was meant to be brilliant but couldn't cope with shit

[mikey-t]

so had another leak in the unit last night,
directly over the box i was storing all my expensive and precious parts and wiring etc, most dried out real quick but probably the most expensive item is still playing up,

my electric water pump controller was soaked and now there is condensation in there,

im going to strip it tonight and leave it in a bag of rice for the asian electric gods to come fix for me]




after cleaning up all my earth points the other day and posting a thread about recommended rust proof techniques i purchased some conductive paint, really is quite a weird think, more paste then paint but it does work as my mate found out to his dismay today,

conducts 12v really quite well even when painted on glass / wood

there is a little resistance brought about but barely noticeable, my grounds are still stronger than they ever was before the build

doesn't look great but better than bare metal




started mocking out my boot wiring today also, eventually there will be a panel to mount it all on and tuck the wires through to hide everything behind but first i need to make sure it works



battery relocation boot to bonnet wire has been fully braided and sealed and run through a conduit at each bulkhead and point of contact, with a mega fuse installed in line just in case

i have used a bus bar as my positive take off to save a mass of wires on the battery terminal each take off will be fused / breaker appropriately as you can see already with the resettable breaker for the ecu supply,

the water meth will be running through a solid state relay and DPO so that will be ok and i need to figure out a better way of fusing the fuel pump as i hate in line blade fuse holders with a passion, too unreliable

[mikey-t]

right so mikey-t returns from his jaunt across half of this hemisphere and im glad to be back after a right cluster (censored) of a tour,

been back a few days and spent most of them in the unit catching up on what my mates havent done.

whilst i was away there was a break in at our site and the lads were nice enough to text me and say just that "units been broken into" and then did not reply until 3 days later,
so you can imagine what i was thinking in the middle of turkey for 3 days with no replys,,,,

luckily only a few tools have been lifted and we are only now realising whats gone,

reach for your brake line tool,,,,,, nope its gone,

thieving bastards,

even put the window through on one of my side projects because why not


anyway this week has mostly consisted of stripping down a death trap of a saxo to swap its engine into a ax gti,

also in the process of supercharging a BMW m52 for a mates e36 and of course scruffy pup.

first it was time to pull the projects out and try tidy up a bit and figure what was gone



ten points to whoever can name the truck



tidy as its going to get



i spent 4 hours trying to get the wheel off as the powdercoat has made it a little tight and the lack of slip literally welded the wheel to the hub,

wont do that again.

it was then time to start stripping the drivers side suspension ready for the quantums and polybushes etc etc,.


have a guess how long the front lower wishbone took to remove??




NOPE 2 (censored)ing days! no room to get my impact gun in there all my meaty sockets didnt have clearance i bent my 4ft extension bar trying and at one scary point actually lifted the car off the axle stand trying but after a long LONG while it eventually let go.

i cannot actually walk up stairs or lift my arms over my waist but i got the bastard off!!

even supercrack didnt work and that is unheard of



after feeling sorry for myself for a while i pottered about painting some stuff like the abs frame and suspension arms, no doubt for the paint to react or chip within minutes but it was better than being stuck at home





so not having enough punishment i decided to fit the spoiler i have had lying around for months, i knew i was going to have to get drill happy but had NOOOO idea how bad i would have to go.

nothing lined up right and when you did line one up the other would jump out etc etc, i had to drill holes underneath just to access the thread with a nut etc in other words a actual ball ache, it was only ever going to be a temporary job until i can get her to a body shop or get a decent boot replacement but still i am unsure, not happy with the fit method or the quality of my panels matching the spoiler especially with some bolt holes out of line,

i may just bung a load of silicone round it and hope for the best as im not building a show car here,

still looks a bit small to me, may have to go spoiler less again or just go BIG



whilst i have been messing around in the arches and leaning on panels etc my wing caught my door and chipped a bit of paint, what followed terrified me,

i knew the previous owner had paid for a dodgy respray but i didnt realise how dodgy, there was no metallic on upright panels so i knew the guy had rushed it and not stripped the car but on my door a mobile phone sized piece of paint / laquer literally fell off revealing perfect black primer,

there was no bonding at all, i chased it a bit with my finger nail and it is literally peeling like pva glue on your hand, massive sections leaving perfect black primer underneath, the paint layer was so thin you can see through it its more like a dye pigment with a thin laquer.

looks like a full rub down and fresh paint on the list of things to save up for,,,,




anyway good to be back and thanks for reading my essay....

[re japi]

luckily only a few tools have been lifted and we are only now realising whats gone,

anyway this week has mostly consisted of stripping down a death trap of a saxo to swap its engine into a ax gti,

also in the process of supercharging a BMW m52 for a mates e36 and of course scruffy pup.

Damn, you were actually quite lucky if they took only tools basically. I mean, isnt those wheels expensive too...

Well, AX Gti is a death trap, even basic basic AX is death wish if you drive it

Beemer engines likes forced induction Oil injectors under pistons and add 2 bar boost and there you go...

[mikey-t]

They took 2 impact drivers off my mates each one cost £400
I will post some pics later of what we found in the saxo ...... Soooo bad

[mikey-t]

this was the average state of the saxo all round, both strut tops and panels all the way from the firewall to slam panel,

and the strength rails under the boot aswell, all hidden by electrical boxes etc